Given the joyful spirit of the holiday season, I wanted to dedicate my article to a cheerful subject. However, when I saw the text of the bizarre Resolution submitted to Azerbaijan’s Parliament on Christmas Eve, I knew that I could not pick a more disgustingly amusing topic.

The proposed Azeri bill is in response to the U.S. House Resolution 4264 (Azerbaijan Democracy Act of 2015) introduced by Helsinki Commission Chair Cong. Chris Smith (R-NJ) on December 16, calling for denial of U.S. entry visas to Azerbaijan’s leaders, their business partners, as well as security, law enforcement, and judicial officials. The Resolution also demands the curtailment of U.S. economic and energy projects with Azerbaijan.

1. Refuse entry to Azerbaijan of: U.S. officials and family members; Senators and House members involved in discrediting Azerbaijan; politicians cooperating with Armenian Diaspora organizations; journalists, representatives of Non-Governmental Organizations, and experts conducting a “smear campaign against Azerbaijan”; Americans who have earned “huge funds as a result of their collaboration with U.S. authorities”; politicians elected “with the support of the Armenian Diaspora” and lobbying groups; persons involved in fraud in U.S. elections; and finally, those “opposing U.S. ratification of international human rights treaties”!
2. Break all business ties between Azerbaijani and American companies;
3. Ban U.S. Non-Governmental Organizations from implementing programs in Azerbaijan and close down their bank accounts; terminate activities in Azerbaijan of NGOs funded by the U.S. government and Congress; end all “cooperation with the United States in the fields of trade, energy, military and security;” withdraw Azeri troops from joint military operations in Afghanistan; prohibit transit of American military and civilian goods through Azerbaijan; and remove the U.S. co-chair from the Minsk Group of mediators on Nagorno Karabagh.

Incredibly, the proposed Azeri Resolution orders the United States to make substantial improvements and changes in the following areas before Azerbaijan would lift its sanctions:

1. Violations of human rights; racial and religious discrimination; manifestations of xenophobia and Islamophobia; and inhuman treatment of prisoners;
2. Disproportionate use of force against protesters;
3. Restrictions of freedom of speech and press, and violation of the privacy of U.S. citizens;
4. Corruption and lobbying activities;
5. Widespread electoral fraud;
6. Interference in the internal affairs of foreign countries;
7. Slander and smear campaigns against the Republic of Azerbaijan;
8. Unambiguous position on “the Nagorno Karabagh conflict in compliance with international law, sanctions on the aggressor country [Armenia], and no ties with the separatist regime of Nagorno Karabagh.”

The lengthy text of the proposed Azeri resolution accuses the United States government of scores of violations, such as:

1. Refusal to ratify 12 out of 16 United Nations human rights treaties;
2. Growing racial and religious discrimination, xenophobia and Islamophobia: “Some 50% of the people are shot by the police; 70% of those arrested and killed in New York are black; and one third of the black people between the ages of 20-29 are in prison”;
3. Genocide against the indigenous people of the United States, resulting in the killing of “more than three million American Indians”;
4. Importing “more than 12 million slaves” from Africa;
5. Violations of the freedom of expression and press; illegal interference by the intelligence agencies in the people’s private lives; widespread bugging and persecution; and “police attacks and arrests of journalists have become an everyday occurrence in the United States”;
6. “Legal corruption and lobbying”: In the first months of 2015 alone, 2,320 criminal cases on charges of bribery were filed against officials at various levels;
7. Widespread fraud in U.S. elections;
8. “Interference in the internal affairs of independent states on the pretext of fighting terrorism and establishing democracy;”
9. Support for “separatist regimes,” such as Nagorno Karabakh.

There is no question that the United States is not a perfect democracy, but to have the parliament of one of the most corrupt and despotic regimes in the world criticize the American Government and its shortcomings is totally ridiculous and outrageous!

Since Azerbaijan needs the U.S. far more than the U.S. needs Azerbaijan, we hope Azerbaijan’s Parliament will quickly adopt the proposed Resolution and cut off all ties with the United States. Good riddance! Americans would then have a better reason to celebrate the New Year!

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We might consider having “Turkey of the Year” awards. Certainly the Azerbaijani Resolution would be right at the top.

But let’s not forget the glowing “pieces” written about Azerbaijan which appear in various newspapers like clockwork and have only slightly less contention with reality–if “reality” is the word I want. Alexander Milstrom, Ali El Husseini, and Reba Cohen are only some of the names that come to mind. Whether they praise the “tolerance” of this “fledgling democracy” and/or whether they attack Armenia, their “journalism” belongs in the same category of unintended humor.

That’s what happens in dictatorships. There are no checks and balances. Aliyev looks worried. He knows that the day of reconing is coming. How does a civil servant on a civil servants salary get to own billions in real estate and foreign accounts in just 20 years. He needs a war with Armenia in order to justify the missing funds stolen by him and his cronies. But he could loose that war and wind up like at Nuremberg. So the daily shelling makes more sense. Who keeps count? But since Armenia counts every shot, so he’ll need bigger battles and large material losses before cessation of hostilities. These people will never stop. Years from now, we’ll be having the same fights with them. If its not the Tatars than it’s the Turks. The only way to deal with Azerbaijan is to support the breakdown of Azerbaijan into its ethnic component. Georgia has much of it’s historic land in Azerbaijan, the Allans, all Muslim by now, have not lost their national aspirations. The Tallish, own a good chunk of real estate and have their own national aspirations., and that leaves much of historic Armenia and a way to come up with a safe land corridor between Armenia and Russia. The Tatars can be resettled in Tataristan. Tataristan could benefit by an influx of their own countrymen, with oil work experience, same religion , language, customs. It would be the only humane thing to do. Under no circumstances should these Tatars be allowed to settle in northern Iran or Turkey, where they would be agitating the local population. In fact the same formula would work on Turkey as well. It too is getting “too big for it’s britches”. A broken up remnant of the old Ottoman empire is the only alternative solution to the Turko Islamo-fascist state.

Good response from Azerbaijan. I think the U.S has more important issues to focus on rather than trying to isolate small countries half a world away. Azerbaijan has its issues but is changing slowly and for the better.

Wow William, You sound more like Mo making excuses for his cousin. Did you read the post above? Beside my rabid chauvanistic rant, the main body of the comment was about graft. The graft is what causes all the problems. It’s because of the Graft, that the authorities have to focus the hatred towards the Armenians. The Armenians of Nagorno Karabagh would have still been within Azerbaijan if it wasn’t for the fact that it was viewed as a small, rich and defenseless minority ready for plunder. The Azery mobs on the streets of Baku, Gandja and Sumgait did not fight Armenian barricades. But they went house to house breaking in stealing , raping, murdering and desecrating the bodies of their victims. Typical Turkish way of warfare. All driven by the desire to plunder in the name of Islam. This has been going on not just for the last one hundred years, but ever since the Arab conquest in 800AD. So my friend William, your optimism is just not shared by anyone in this neighborhood.

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